2003/02/28

New column up on Whore's Boudoir. Eventually I'll get something for the magazine. :P
This little piggy took a bath…

I had a bath the other night, and as I sat in the hot water, my legs fully extended to just beneath the tap (I love being short), my attention was caught by my toes. (I have nice toes – ask to see them sometime).

There they were, at the end of my feet (unlike yours, which sprout from your kneecaps), looking alien to me. I’ve certainly seen my toes before – Hell, I see them every day – but for some reason, that night in the tub, they looked different.

They were pale, white, straight, and just… there. My inner thighs were all red from the heat of the water, but it hadn’t pinkened any further down my legs. This seems to be the pattern for me in hot water; my thighs and lower abdomen turn pink or red, while the rest of stays pale.

So there were my little alien toes, staring up at me blankly. They weren’t going anywhere and my bathwater was getting cold, so I got on with my bath and stopped looking at my toes.


I like my cats

I’ll be the first to admit that, at times, I annoy easily. People cutting me off on foot, people who drive under the speed limit in good weather in the lane I want, my sister or the coworker… but I also tend to amuse easily, too.

As an example (or several): my cats. The fact that Digger (and previously Chloe) likes(d) to pick through garbage cans and fish out dental floss to play with makes me laugh. The fact that one night, Digger amused himself (and me, somewhat) by repeatedly knocking over my garbage can and then ignoring it – all as a signal to me to go to bed – is a riot. The fact that he gets bored and goes snooping through my desk or garbage can to find a toy – then chases a fake flower I give him all around the upstairs – is fantastic.

This is the same cat who waits outside my door until I go to bed to come in and pin my feet and snuggle me. He tells me when he’s getting fed up with waiting for me to go to bed, too; he comes in and meows at me, pacing back and forth and sometimes jumping up in my lap. Here he always steps on my keyboard tray and pushes it in – I’ve unlocked it so as to make more room for him on my lap. Her he sticks his floofy tail in my face and tries to find room on my meagre desk to pace and find trouble, or Post-It notes, a pad of which is one of his favourite playthings. I kid you not.

This morning when I woke up, Digger was camped out on my bed, and not too impressed with being disturbed. He followed me around, telling me I needed to attend to his needs, but Shadow was nowhere to be found; not on my sister’s bed, my parents’, or in the hallway. I thought she must’ve been downstairs, until I sat down at the computer and happened to glace over to the window. There she was, camped out on the register. [Since I originally wrote this piece a few days ago, this setup has become a routine.] Shadow is what we like to call a “heat-seeker.” Registers, warm people, and under blankets (sometimes) are all her domain.

She also started to go through my garbage can, a la Digger. Apparently the security seals from my DVDs are fascinating playthings to a cat.


Johnny Storm… not just a fish, but a legend

As I said before, when I got home last night, I discovered to my dismay, that Johnny Storm, the red fish of the original “red fish blue fish” pairing, had died. He shares a tank that’s divided by a plastic wall with Dr. Seuss, the blue fish of the pair, who appears to be fine physically (as much as I can tell just by staring at him through the water), if a bit down in spirit.

Both Dr. Seuss and Stinky appear to realize that something major has happened. Perhaps they sense a void in the space beside and beneath them, respectively; perhaps his little fishy final gasping for breath was audible to the two of them, and they were able to sense what happened. I don’t know if Johnny Storm (known as Storm, for short) made any final convulsions, or even if he could sense his time was near and prepare them; all I know is that he didn’t prepare me, and I was shocked when I came home.

Unlike other dead fish that I have seen, Storm didn’t want to upset others by floating, belly up, at the top of his tank; rather, he was found lying motionless on the bottom of the tank. Maybe it was a suicide, and he weighted down his little fishy belly with rocks from the bottom of the tank in order to drown himself. Any note he left was long gone by the time I found him, so I’ll never know.

It’s also possible that the plotting that I thought I saw between the fish was not plotting against me, but rather against Storm; fed up with his superiority complex and his bragging about his vivid red colouring, the mottled Stinky and blue Dr. Seuss decided to do away with him somehow.

Of course, having flushed the body, I’ll never know. It’s not possible for the water to have been poisoned, as Dr. Seuss shares the same water. This must have presented quite the dilemma to our little Machiavellians, as they discussed the best way to do away with poor Storm. Possibly they poisoned his food; possibly they shot him in the back of the head, execution-style. I’ll never know.

But alas, poor Storm… you lived a good, fishy life. Your food was plentiful, your water occasionally changed, and you got to swim your little fishy heart out. You are missed by those of us you left behind, including myself, and though other fish may come and go, they will never be your equal. May you go to little fishy Heaven, and not have gotten clogged in the toilet’s U-bend pipe, or I will be thoroughly revolted when we have to fish (no pun intended) your little fishy body out of the pipe, and I will likely catch holy hell for having clogged it in the first place.

Take care, little fishy, and dream sweet fishy dreams of hot mermaids and toes to nibble.


And that other stuff

My witchcraft midterm got delayed a week, which was a bit of a pisser but nothing too bad. I don’t know why; I didn’t stay to find out. When I left, I chatted for a bit with a girl I used to work with at the animal hospital, then headed over to Mark’s.

Mark and I watched South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, which I’ve seen before, but not for awhile. A tip for you, if you rent it on DVD: play it in French, and fast forward to the “Uncle Fucker” song section. It’s funny in French, trust me.

I wrote my English exam today, so it was nice to get that out of the way. Let’s see, my semester is more than half over, and I’ve submitted two papers and written one exam. I feel so productive.

Actually, I am anything but productive. I still haven’t submitted anything to the magazine, although I’m hoping to rectify that tonight, and I still haven’t really done any of those readings I keep telling myself I have to do. I’m kinda not really caught up in English (I was ahead, but then he switched some stuff around, so all I can say is that it’s a damn good thing I’d already started Alias Grace, ‘cause I don’t think I’d get through it in time otherwise), and I’m doing okay in Witchcraft, although now with the exam delay and all, I probably still have a bunch to do. Forget about either CMN course; I haven’t really touched the readings for either of those… and oh, did I mention? I have a paper due on Tuesday, based on the readings. Wahoo.

Tomorrow I’m getting together with a classmate to prep our Tuesday presentation, and I’m also getting my photos taken for grad. I’m hoping I don’t look all exhausted for them, and I have to remember to wear a white shirt, pack my contacts (or wear ‘em) and grab my makeup. Gotta look purdy!

On a tangential note, Digger apparently stole the sticky paper that wrapped up one of my socks from my garbage can when I wasn’t looking, ‘cause he’s since brought it back into my room to show off. Or play with. With him, it’s hard to tell. I give him the flower.

Bah. Distractions in the form of conversations. Good ones, though, so I don’t mind. I just keep noticing how it’s getting later and later and I need sleep so as not to look like death warmed over tomorrow… *grumble*

Okay, time to wrap this up and try for an article. I think I’ve covered it all, and if not, then I’ll add it later.

2003/02/27

Y'know, if he weren't such an asshole, I might find his presence just a touch more tolerable. As it is... well, I don't.

What an asshole.
Holy depressing. Johnny Storm, the red fish, has died. :(
Another for the quotes, by request: "Thats how Jen writes her blog. When you're reading her blog it's like you're plugged directly into her brain".

2003/02/26

New article posted to Whore's Boudoir. I know, I know; it's late. And it kinda sucks. Sorry. :P
I've updated the Quotes page to incorporate the last few good ones. :)
Quote of the day:

"I need to figure out how to say "Women" and exclude you from all the negative connotations. ;) *grin* You're kindof like a rational man, with boobies. :) And you're hot."
Blue info
Your Heart is Blue


What Color is Your Heart?
brought to you by Quizilla

The image doesn't seem to want to work, so here's the text that's inside of it:

Your heart is blue. Ahhh, so who broke your heart? You were happy while it lasted, and now you are crushed and depressed, but you'll one day love again. After all, better to have loved and lost then not to have loved at all, right?

2003/02/25

After writing that bit last night, I got hit with a burst of inspiration based on what Digger was up to, and wrote a two-page entry in my notebook to post on here. I'm not going to post it just yet, since I want to get going on the day and any minute now someone is going to start up a conversation with me, but right now, all I want to say is ewww. What I was shown last week is not what I saw today, and oh my god, I think it's ugly. Wondering what I'm talking about? It's the new format for unCultured.

If you never saw it before, then I'm sorry, and you've missed out; while the posting style wasn't conducive to the types of debates and discussions they wanted to have, at least it looked nice. Maybe it's just my bias against orange, and I know that orange and blue are contrasting colours (like red and green and purple and yellow), but really now? *shudder* That's my two cents on that.

And I know that at least two of the people who post to unCultured read my site and maybe I've hurt someone's feelings by posting this, but... urgh. Gross. No one thought that while we were going back and forth on where to host it, that maybe someone should bring up the colour scheme? Like, "I'm going to make the site blue still, but with big orange title bars for the date," and maybe someone else could've said, "Okay, you're a programmer, not an artist. No."

But alas, no such luck. A lot of people whose blogs I follow have recently undergone template changes. We have Mark/Moose/Buzz/Monkey (yeah, that list of nicknames just keeps getting longer), there's Lucas, as mentioned before, unCultured... and okay, so that's it. It just seemed like more than that, and maybe it was, I just can't think of them right now.

Anyhow, that's all I had to say about that (at least until later, I'm sure), and now I must be off. Digger wants something (doesn't he always?), and I want foodage. (There ya go monkey, I used it again). More from me later, when I insult someone else's work and make them cry.
Update soon, I promise. It was Blogger's fault last time; they were upgrading their servers. For now, a bit of reading and bed. Get well soon, monkey-Moose. :)

2003/02/23

Urgh. I hate this weather. I hate shovelling snow. I hate feeling like blah afterwards.

Stupid storm. *grrr*

The one upshot was seeing a number of the people on my street all out shovelling at the same time. It was kinda cool, and we chatted with our neighbours on both sides for a bit.

I do hate everyone who has a snowblower, just on general principles. It took my folks and I somewhere around 45 minutes to clear out the driveway, and we didn't even do the most thorough job.

Ah well, I'll be hurting tomorrow. *groan*
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2003/02/22

Lovely sickness. I clicked on Angus' audio blog to give it a listen, and it played in IE for me, which I don't mind so much. What got me was the other videos that IE had stored up through WindowsUpdate that I could watch, including the headline, 'Dozens crushed in Chicago nightclub. Go watch.' Umm... excuse me?

Anyhow, more later, but for now, I just wanted to write about that. *thpthpth*

2003/02/20

Looks promising, looks promising... but of course, I can't say more. I don't want to jinx it. My mom'll flip when I tell her the name of the site, but... hrm. Toughage. It's writing, it's what I've been doing over the last while... it'll work. :)

I went skating tonight with a few friends that I hadn't seen in awhile. I figured perhaps there was a plot afoot, since I hadn't heard from any of them for awhile, but it looks like everyone was and is just busy for now. It happens, I guess.

Mark and I caught DareDevil yesterday. Hard to say where I stand on it. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. We saw it on cheap night, and I don't feel I wasted my money. How's that for a vague review on it? If you check out his site (Confessions of a Movie Geek...), he has some thoughts posted on it; same with Jay (over at Lunar Bovine).

Today was otherwise pretty quiet. Both my dad and sister were home today -- on my day off! -- so I was somewhat cheesed about that. I have a whole rant about my sister's presence and the waste of money it was to bring her here to do nothing but sit around and watch television, but that's been said and done already. Meh.

Since my dad was working downstairs, it meant that it was quiet and I could do some serious reading on the couch, which I did. Digger settled in at my feet, and Shadow came along and draped herself lengthwise down my thigh. I was pinned, but warm, cozy, and soothed. It was nice. I managed to finish my book later at Mark's place; 'twas the Scold's Bridle, and I had to read it for Mystery Novel. I'm now ahead in that class, and pleased of it; the next two books will be a bit of a lengthy read, particuarly Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood.

Now I just have to get caught up (although in some ways I'm slightly ahead) in Witchcraft, and completely caught up in those other two courses I'm taking... Intercultural and International Development. Blargh.

I'm considering stocking up on the writing courses available online, but I think I need to wait until my debts are paid down somewhat more to do so. I got my VISA bill the other day, and although I know I put at least one item on it over the last little bit, the rest of the amount is down and that makes me very happy. Now I just need to find myself a rich sugar daddy to pay off that and the rest of my debt for me, and I'm all set. Any takers? ;)

Okay, it's late and Digger wants me to go to bed. He's got me well-trained. :)

Oh, but before I forget, a quote for you (something that almost had me snorting water out of my nose): "It's not a toy... it's a meaty piece of manmeat." (Maybe you had to be there? It was fucking funny, nonetheless.)

2003/02/18

New article posted on Whore's Boudoir.
Last night I caught Sweet Home Alabama with Mark. I have to confess, it was my idea to see it, ‘cause I hadn’t seen a new romantic comedy in awhile and I was curious about this one.

As with The Good Girl, the symbolism in it was a little heavy-handed, but overall it wasn’t too bad. It certainly doesn’t rank up there among my favourites, but it was a half-decent way to spend the evening.

It’s interesting watching films with Mark, partly because of the different perspectives we have on them. He often views films from a technical side, and he’s said he dislikes porn because of the lighting and camera angles, and the problems he has with them – I think that’s absolutely priceless.

I’m making more of an effort to watch the “arty” films that people tout as being absolutely incredibly brilliant and/or hilarious, but I often have major problems with them. As an example – High Fidelity, which Mark had described as a guy’s romantic comedy. Sure, the movie had funny moments, but overall, I felt like the main character (John Cusack) would have been obsessed with any particular woman at that point in his life. Yes, he does give a brief rundown of things he finds fantastic about her (five, if memory serves, in keeping with his top five list themes), but … that was about the only time that he seemed to have anything worth saying about her. Otherwise it just seemed like spite or something – he was upset because she moved out on him and started seeing someone else, so he was obsessed with the one that got away.

I know, it wasn’t the first relationship he had where the girl left him, but… argh. The other huge problem I had with it was that we never saw why she came back, why she cared about him, any of that stuff. I mean, shit – show him doing something nice for you, other than attending your dad’s funeral, show you two in a romantic time or three, give me something to understand why you want this guy and why he wants you.

Lord knows I’ve consumed enough romantic fiction and films, so I know what I need to feel convinced that a couple cares for one another. That’s not me trying to claim that I’m an expert on real-life romance (not even close, if you know my overall history), but I do know when I’m left disappointed or skeptical of a fictional presentation of love and romance.

I’ve said it a few times before in conversations with Mark; because I don’t generally watch films for the technical aspects (a good reason behind why I have yet to see either Lord of the Rings film, or the Titanic, for example), I tend to miss out on things. I saw Citizen Kane in one of my film classes in years past, and it reminded me that I watch films for the story. If I’m disappointed with the story or the characters for some reason, then I’m less likely to enjoy the movie. Watching the classic films, such as Citizen Kane, Charlie Chaplin movies or Buster Keaton movies, it’s sometimes difficult for me to appreciate them properly – I need reminding at times that these techniques that I’ve seen duplicated a billion times in modern movies (such as the crane shot that first introduces us to the club in Citizen Kane, if I remember correctly) were done for the first time in these films; these were pioneering techniques.

Watching Keaton or Chaplin, I remind myself that those stunts were done without doubles, without blue or green screens, without any kind of outside assistance or camera tricks. A few of the commonly reproduced scenes out of these movies were ones that could have easily killed the actors, such as the scene of Chaplin passing through the gears in Modern Times, or Buster Keaton on the train trellis in Go West (if memory serves)… One scene in Steamboat Bill, Jr. has a house front falling onto Keaton, with him standing in the window and remaining unscathed; my prof told the class that half of his crew quit the day they filmed that scene because they didn’t want to be at fault if he was killed. Watching that scene I felt somewhat underwhelmed – after all, I’ve seen it before – until I realized that hey, this was done live, without outside help, for the first time, and it was captured on film. That’s pretty impressive.

So movies such as The Good Girl, that are supposed to be about – what? Being trapped in a suffocating marriage with a husband you’re growing to resent, having his best friend blackmail you into sleeping with him, you wind up with the baby you wanted at the end of the film, but you’re still depressed… what meaning am I supposed to get out of this? If you’re unhappy, then you might as well resign yourself to it, ‘cause it ain’t getting any better?

No, I don’t look to all the films that I see as an attempt to generate or receive meaning for my lot in life. That would be foolish, and I see movies primarily as a form of entertainment, which is why I don’t often see the arty films, or why I might wind up disappointed with them. That’s not always the case, and I do certainly find films I enjoy – Run Lola Run, which would rank on my desert island picks, I believe; or Like Water for Chocolate, which I hope to see again soon and read the book – that are out of the ordinary, but I find that the films I greatly enjoy gave me something. Be it a good laugh, some hope, some insight, retribution, justice, escapism… they all provided me with something.

After watching The Rules of Attraction, someone in the group commented how it was a poor date movie, and that it left you with the feeling, “Well, life sucks and you’ll never be happy, so you might as well give up and die.” I didn’t get quite that feeling from that movie, but many of the award-winning films seem to have that theme, and it’s a reason I often wind up being disappointed with them.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for a happy ending.

2003/02/17

Okay, I have a few minutes. Shadow is currently asleep on the heat vent in my room; what a goon. :)

Last night Digger was spooning with me on the couch as I watched the Simpsons episodes my dad taped. Shadow came along and draped herself up me, chewed a bit on my hair, then moved down to my legs and snuggled there. I had to answer my phone, so we all got disturbed, but Digger came back for some more mad kitty spooning. The only problem was that this time his butt was basically hanging off the edge, so I had one hand braced under his feet to keep him there. He went to sleep, so obviously he didn't care that much.

When I had to get up, I moved around him, so he was still on the couch, just hanging on by himself. He was secure. He then moved his butt so it was more in line with the edge of the cushion, but he was still on the very edge. Since that wasn't goofy enough looking, he stuck his butt up in the air, little paws still hanging on to the edge of the cushion (where it wraps around the arm), and I gave him a back scratch. He's a strange, strange, cat. :)

Anyhow... left for Montreal Friday evening. We could have caught the five o'clock bus, but only if we didn't want to sit together. No big deal, waited for the 6. Both of us wound up sleeping most of the way; I know I fell asleep twice, so I only dealt with about 30 minutes of the ride itself, which really makes the time go by quickly. I saw Mark's head bobbing up and down a few times since he was sleeping sitting up, so that was kinda funny. He said that he drooled a bit, and I think I may have heard him snore.

Haha, how's that for embarrasing him? :) Of course, I'm not a pretty sleeper either; my mouth was wide open, and I think I might've drooled a bit as well. This is why it's a good thing we didn't take the five o'clock bus; can you imagine how repulsed our seat mates would have been?

Checked into the hotel, then headed off down St. Denis to the Italian restaurant I ate at last year. They sat us at the back of the restaurant, next to a huge party of crazy French-Italians -- but rest assured, I mean good crazy. They were singing "That's Amore!" to someone in the group that had gotten engaged/married -- it was funny. :) The only problem we had with the restaurant was where they sat us there was this weird chemical smell; we thought it might've been coming from the machine on the bar (an espresso machine? A small dishwasher?), but we couldn't tell.

Before we left the restaurant, Mark paid for the meal and I stood out of the way towards the door. Mark had bought a rose from the travelling guy in the restaurant, so one of the owners was asking me where I'd gotten it and such. Him and the guy working the cash were chatting with me, and the owner offered to be my boyfriend if Mark didn't treat me right. However, my Italian boyfriend (as I've named him) told me I had nice green eyes, which are really blue, so I don't know if I want to make a relationship of it.

After we left the restaurant, we headed over to St. Catherine to try to find Club Super Sexe. Got the address and everything (696), headed in what we thought was the right direction and ... all of a sudden the numbers went from 500 to 800. No 600s to be found. We figured that it must've been the other direction (East instead of West), but it was too damn cold to try. So off we were, back to the hotel for some hanging out, warming up and watching television.

I didn't want to stay up too late in case we overslept the next morning (checkout being at noon), so we crashed around what was probably 1:30 or 2, and got up with plenty of time to spare... which we promptly wasted by watching cartoons. No matter. Breakfast was muffins I'd bought the day before at the local bus station, which left crumbs and chocolate stains all over the sheets (there were two beds in the room, so it's not as if it would've been gross if we'd spent another night), then off we went to the Biodome, one of the happiest places ever. :)

We spent a few hours at the Biodome, looking through, grabbing some lunch, and perusing the gift shop. I bought a soft stuffed penguin and a pig keychain for my aunt, and I bought a vibrating duel penguin on a pull-string arrangement that sounds much dirtier than it really is for Mark. I can’t think how to describe it, but you can buy all kinds of varieties of the toys I’m talking about, so if you’ve seen it, you can basically figure out what I mean.

As we were homeless at this point and not meeting with any success in hooking up with Mark and Ben’s sister or their friend, we decided to catch the bus back home and just hang out there. Hit up Loblaws for some perogies that I didn’t end up making until the next day, shared some pie and explored the extras on the X-Men 1.5 DVD I picked up and watched When Harry Met Sally (part of my Valentine’s gift from Mark).

Sunday was quiet, just hanging around the house and then off to work. I stopped by on the way to feed Mark some more pie, and after I got home I caught the 301st and 302nd episodes of Simpsons. ‘Twas a quiet evening, although I did get that article written for unCultured, something I’d started while at work (and vaguely bored).

Today I got to bring the Shadowbrat to the vet, and she was squirmy there and howly in the car, both directions. It’s funny when you tell people you’re bringing your cat to the vet; their immediate reaction is to ask what’s wrong with her, or say “I hope everything’s okay.” No one thinks of routine things like vaccines, which is all she had today. Well, there were a few other minor concerns, but nothing bad. We’ll see if the food helps. :)

Tonight there are tentative plans to head out to see DareDevil as a crew. According to what I overheard my dad saying last night, Ebert and Roeper liked it, although I’m hearing from basically everyone else that it’s pretty poo. I haven’t been out to see anything in awhile though – I think Catch Me If You Can, seen a day or so before Christmas Day, was the last thing I saw in theatres – so I don’t mind so much. I have a coupon that I got with the DVD, but I might save that for when I see X-Men 2, which Mark and I have already planned to see opening night. We’re fans. ;)

Part of me is very tempted to take the week off from work, but I can’t really afford to, and I don’t really need to. I can go in a bit earlier and still be out at a decent enough time to do some serious reading, which I will be doing after tonight. Urgh. The sad thing is, I could almost get by without doing any for awhile yet… but I’m hoping to knock off one of my papers this week (if it’s at all possible), and get caught up/ahead. The week when I get back, I have two exams, so that’ll be fun.

I also got my exam schedule for April, and it’s kinda crap:
* Communication and International Development, a take home, due April 17th (but we’re getting them March 17th, so I have lots of time and little to do during March – i.e., nothing)
* Intercultural Communication: April 23rd, from 2 – 5 p.m.
* Mystery Novel: April 23rd, from 7 – 10 p.m.
* Witchcraft, Magic and Occult Traditions: April 29th, from 7 – 10 p.m.

I really can’t complain *too* much about the schedule going on so late. It’s because of the first-year and second-year nature of the courses, and I really didn’t have anything to do this semester, so I suppose it’s only fair.

Mind, I’ve also had some really stressful semesters that ended in really crappy exam schedules… so I think I’m going to wind up complaining regardless of what happens. ;)

Anyhow, I must be off to grab some dinner before I depart for my radio course tonight. It’s a bit of a drag, but it’s not too bad, ‘cause we usually get out early, and it’s a small class. Plus there’s always the flattering aspect of having someone giving off “I think you’re cute” vibes to you. ;)

And before I forget, I found this through a link left on a friend’s site. Apparently Google has purchased PyraLabs, the force behind Blogger.com and Blogspot.com. It’ll be interesting to see what turns up over the next little while as a result of this.
Digger is being very impatient with me, and I have to get up in the morning to take Shadow to the vet (just vaccines, she's fat and fine), so I will have my update writing session tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the unCultured post I just wrote, and I'm off to bed. :)

2003/02/14

And new article up on Whore's Boudoir. As for me, I'm off to Montreal for the evening, so I won't have anything to post here until at least Saturday evening -- hopefully on my new system. Have a happy Valentine's day, singles and couples, and I will post tales of sex clubs and drunken laciviousness (oh, major sp there, I know) to tantalize, tease and titillate (every good day includes some alliteration) when I return. ;)
Reviews of three new books posted to Bibliophilage: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie, The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Basket Case, by Carl Hiaasen.

2003/02/13

Strong Bad
You are Strong Bad! You rock and are awesome!


Which HomestarRunner character are you? (with pictures)
brought to you by Quizilla

First of all, my apologies to anyone who has sent me messages through ICQ/MSN the last few days and hasn't received a reply. My motherboard was randomly crashing, and now it's completely up and died on me, and so I've been using my mom's computer to stay abreast of things. My dad is going to take the weekend and set it up with the new motherboard he bought, so I will soon be back in business, but for now, it's email or my cell to get in touch with me. :)

Second of all, actual content. I'd like to thank the 254 people who visited Whore's Boudoir in the last week; it's because of you that I'm getting the confidence and determination to turn the site into something bigger. I don't want to talk too much about it, but so far plans are underway for an actual logo, as well as a few possible expansions and a move to a dedicated web address, minus the blogspot. We'll see what happens when I get some more (positive) cash flow going on.

I've written an article/rant, but I'm uncertain as to whether or not it should go anywhere other than my notebook. It's too personal for the WB, possibly suited to the hidden page, unlikely right for unCulltured... ah well. I gave it to Ben to read last night, and he agreed with me about the WB part. I guess at the very least, it's been read by someone and that makes me happy.

The last few days have been fairly quiet, as my posting of quizzes might reflect. I didn't go to my radio course on Monday, 'cause the weather was just awful for driving (could barely see across the street), and I wasn't feeling much like going anyways. I wound up instead playing on the computer, writing Tuesday's article, and mainly watching television.

I read a bit more of my novel for English -- "the Murder of Roger Ackroyd," by Agatha Christie. Actually, I've now finished it, and I must say, it certainly id have a twist ending. Further discussion of such will appear on Bibliophilage (but rest assured, I won't give anything away).

Today was another relatively wasted day -- I skipped class and watched a fair bit of Sex and the City, but I also read a bit for Witchcraft (the class I skipped), so I odn't feel the day was completely wasted. In the evening, I got together with Mark and Ben; I chatted with Ben about the future of our various weblogs while he made soup and pudding, and Mark finished up his applications to university (one to which he applied required supplementary applications that had to be mailed that evening, so I was ignoring him while he worked). I felt bad; I had to help him kill 100 words out of the short story he'd written (250 max), and I always hate doing that. It's tough to get rid of stuff you've written (which is one reason why the columns I write vary in length so), and I didn't want him to feel like I was changing his story from what he'd originally had.

It turns out that he had forgotten to double-space one of his submissions, but the post office lady said that it wouldn't be going out until 5 today anyhow, so she stamped his envelope with Wednesday's date and sent him back home, which I thought was really nice of her. After all the running around, we finished up our dinners and watched a bit of television. Ben got on the phone with his gf, and Mark and I hung out in his room. For once, I didn't fall asleep, but I'm vaguely wishing I'd left at the time I planned earlier, 'cause today I'm tired. Story of my life, however, and it could've been worse.

Today I'm meeting up with a friend for lunch and some dirty shopping -- we're hitting the sex shop that I love so. It's hilarious first of all, the number of times I've been there in such a short period of time, and second of all, the fact that *every* time I've been, I've been with a different person. It's great! I've been three times with one particular friend, but the second and third time there were others with us (different others), so it still qualifies. :)

Anyhow, time to finish this up (at least for now) and get running. The clock on this computer is all screwed up, so I have no idea what time it really is, and I still have to get dressed and dry my hair. Digger's taking up space on my bed, so he's not likely to appreciate me dumping all kinds of clothes on him, but... he should move. :)

Y'know, I think the fish might somehow be to blame for the motherboard dying... they're forcing me out of my room and into more and more potentially dangerous situations. Right now, I'm just a few feet away from the furnace -- maybe they've rigged it to explode? I think I'm worried. :P

2003/02/12

A quote: "Well, that was my first thought, then I decided "Why not actually /playing/ the game instead of molesting helpless CG monkeys?" Then I decided "CG monkeys are more fun than playing the game," and I molested my monkey."

I can't get the picture working just yet. Stupid Blogger problems. :P

I'll have content up tomorrow -- tonight was spent doing other things, none of them especially productive.

2003/02/11

the strength of the ring barrel is failing
You don't do things on purpose, so people tend to cut you some slack. Still, it would be best if you stopped doing things all together.


What Lord of the Rings engrish subtitle are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
New article up on Whore's Boudoir. I think I'm going to change my posting to that to once a week, at least for now. But I'll have something up for Valentine's Day... so maybe I'll stick to the biweekly.

I keep hoping that weird stuff -- like the conversation that inspired the column, "You did what on my what?!?" -- will happen to me and so I can talk about it. An email a friend sent kinda prompted this week's, and I think I have another in the works based on an email sent to me by a stranger asking advice... but soon enough I might have to delve into some of the big ones, like shaving, giving and getting head, positions... things that I know will be pretty significant articles, and likely easy to write. Beh, I don't even really know what I'm saying at this point. :)

Anyhow, it's definitely time for bed, I want to get rid of this headache (see, I wasn't lying, a reference you'll get after you read the article), and maybe get into work a bit early so I can get some crappage done.

P.S. Lucas, I'm only 14 hits behind now... at least at last check. Byebye! ;)

2003/02/10

What Kind of Kisser Are You?

Jen, you're a Romantic Kisser

Whew, is it warm in here or is that just you? When it comes to kissing, you get your drive from the lure of romance. For you, it's more than a meeting of the lips. You appreciate kissing for the rush and for what it symbolizes. Long-stemmed roses, candlelight dinners, and weekend retreats to bed and breakfasts. Sound about your speed?

You're a kissing partner who can go beyond the sweet surrender of locking lips to discuss the meaning of relationships. To really express yourself, you're probably one who's concerned with setting the proper mood. You might light a fire or take your date to a beautiful lookout before cuddling and kissing. You probably like to make a lot of eye contact, gently hug and touch your date, and talk tenderly about your feelings.

While your intensions are pure, your intensity might sometimes be a little overwhelming. Don't forget that being playful can also be a sign of affection, and remember, sometimes a kiss is just a kiss.

2003/02/09

Gnah. What a busy few days. Let's see... I promise this update won't be as long as the last one. ;)

Last night was gord's big gay bash, evening the second. I didn't attend evening the first 'cause I was trying to save some cash, and it turns out I wasn't feeling to wunnerful anyhow. I got to spend most of Friday prone on the couch/futon in the basement, watching television and being sat on by cats. It was a good night. :)

Anyhow, Saturday. I went to bed around 3 a.m. Friday night, feeling exhausted and somewhat vulnerable all evening, then slept until 2 in the afternoon on Saturday. Ran a few errands for Mom, then showered and checked my email, discovering that -- hey! I had to go catch a bus if I was to meet up with gord and crew on time.

I drove to the bus station, hopped on the bus, and lo and behold -- there be gord and his friends Shawn, and his gf. gord and I chatted on the way to the shopping centre, occasionally also chatting with Shawn and gf. We sat in the food court, I hit up Timmy's for a quick tide-me-over snack, and then met with Angus and his gf, Jenn (please note, two n's). Jenn is also from N.S., although more so than I, and she also hates seafood. That made me very happy.

We picked up a few more people, then headed off to the restaurant. While we were standing in the bus shelter, waiting for the bus, there was much discussion about the side effects of gord's medication, which listed, among other things, diarrhea and constipation, and a little further down the list, death. Apparently death isn't a serious enough side effect that it should be listed first or anything. Anyhow, there were many many jokes made about torrential explosive diarrhea, they were all vile and hilarious because of gord's delivery, and somehow I doubt the couple standing directly behind gord found it all that great. Mind you, they didn't give us any dirty looks, so they may not have minded that much.

Somehow we moved from that to the discussion of manufacturing buttplugs and other sexual devices from produce, and the consensus was that, contrary to what Dan Savage may have said in his latest column, carving sweet potatoes into butt plugs isn't the best thing to do. Neither is using carrots, zucchinis, bananas (which, according to one who shall remain nameless -- not I -- mush inappropriately when employed) or assorted other phallicly-shaped foods (or other kitchen items like potato mashers and knife sharpeners). So that was our loud bus discussion that was great fun to have.

Did I mention that Shawn and his gf work in a porn store, and according to gord, I'm the "biggest whore on the Internet"? With three of us in that vein, plus gord and Angus who shy away from no topic of discussion, the conversations were varied, frequently dirty, and side-splittingly hilarious.

We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where we likely offended a number of other diners, consumed a huge amount of food, then headed off to Magni's place to "hang." A group of us went for dessert first, since no evening is complete without the consumpution of cheesecake and other foods that are good for you. Afterwards it was over to Magni's place, where we met his other roommates and the conversation continued. In particular, gord, Ben and a workfriend of Ben's (also a friend of Moose's) chatted a fair bit about work and such.

Somewhere after midnight, Ben and I hoofed it out to the bus and headed back to his place. We passed Moose enroute, about two minutes from the door. The evening wrapped up somewhat early afterwards; Moose hit the shower (after falling asleep for a bit, apparently), I started hammering out an article, and Ben fell asleep on the phone with the gf.

The last few days I haven't been feeling well, and yesterday I was feeling somewhat vulnerable/sucky, so I wasn't really up or active. I had a great time out with gord and the crew, and I was really glad that I went out -- I'd been wondering how late of an evening I'd have made it, so it was awesome that I had fun, I was really happy.

Last night I didn't get to sleep until somewhat late; Moose and I were just watching stupid television and talking, but this morning I was feeling pretty blah again, likely due to not getting enough rest. Apparently I didn't learn after the last few days I went without sleep. :P :) Ah well... something else to fix somewhere down the line.

I gotta get my resume off to gord, so he can forward it down the line to Shawn's gf; I'm going to try and get some hours at the store. I may not have the retail experience, but I have the knowledge and the comfort levels with that sort of environment. I just figure my folks'll freak. In spades. However, it would definitely add another dynamic to this site, and possibly even inspire me to buy the domain I'm eyeing -- http://www.whoresboudoir.com -- and add yet another aspect to it. :)Ooh, this could be fantastic, I just gotta get the cash for it. And time. But what is time?

Something I lack. Like sense, sensibility, and ... well, time. Sorry, I'm rambling now. Time to get back to work. :)

2003/02/08

Ah… tasty chili. I like my workplace; today, because the people who usually run our little caf are off this week, a number of women organized a chili cook-off, and they were selling bowls for $2 a pop. I had a good bowl, very tasty without being insanely spicy, and I even ate a bunch of the beans. Be proud of me. :)

I wanted to explain why it is that I am now composing things solely for unCultured.com. Basically, there are going to be some format changes going on in the (near) future. Lucas and Ben are carrying them out, which means they won’t happen for ages and ages. ;)

Shawn and Lucas were discussing the fact that hits have fallen off for unCultured, which explains why I happen to be somewhere in the neighbourhood of less than 70 hits behind it now ;), and in order to increase some of the traffic, they brainstormed up a few ideas. Namely, they want to incorporate me as a publicist of sorts for the site, and so they developed a few options under that guise. One of them involved me moving my site to be a subset of unCultured, and since there were plans to upgrade the site, they thought that they would be offering me something that I didn’t have already – namely, the ability to upload pictures to my page, or have multiple pages beyond the first one.

What no one appears to have known or realized was that I already paid to upgrade my site quite some time ago, so not only would I possibly be losing out on readers because of the URL change (even though I know I could set up an “auto forward” function and all that), but I wouldn’t be getting anything I didn’t already have… and the money I’d invested in my page would be lost.

As well, since my site grew as something separate and unique from unCultured, I treat it differently. It gets my rambles about my cats, how my fish are stalking me, random grumps and mutters about strangers, coworkers or friends, and whatever goofiness I feel like posting. As much as such is encouraged for content to unCultured, I don’t feel comfortable posting the same way there. At least with the current format, it feels as though I ought to be posting something significant or interesting there; and while my numbers apparently show that some of you find my rambles interesting, I don’t feel right in boring the rest of the unCultured community with the same.

On this site, I write for me, and for you. I write to inform you of what’s going on in my life, I write to vent about what upsets me, or I write to think out loud and understand things. I don’t do that on unCultured, so I don’t want to move my page to a subset of it. Therefore, it ain’t gonna happen, so no one needs to worry, least of all me. Which almost makes it seem as if someone other than me has control over what goes on with my site, but they don’t. C’est mine, and that’s how it stays. :)

I like knowing that people visit my site because they want to, for whatever reason that may be. I wouldn’t necessarily have that reassurance with making it a subset site.

The astute of you (or the bored who skipped ahead through my angsty self-analysis and justification of not moving my site) have already gathered what’s going to happen instead. The other option was to have me write “exclusive” content for unCultured. For now, this means that I’ll contribute articles that don’t end up here, but discussions are underway to set me up a separate heading for answering people’s questions or whatnot. I’m not sure how successful it’ll be; people hit this and Whore's Boudoir on a relatively regular basis, but few ever post, but Shawn was talking about setting up an anonymous remailer in order to cope with that – namely, the assurance of anonymity is presumed to encourage people to perhaps write in questions/ideas/marriage proposals.

Right now, I feel as if I’m somewhat carrying the site, at least sometimes. There’s a pretty large cast of characters on there, but it seems as if everyone has abandoned the site for other projects. I’ve put it aside to focus on this and my other writing projects, but I don’t know if anyone else on there can say the same. It’s weird that most of the original posters have all disappeared, and I worry that they’ll feel us newbies have taken it away from them. :P I hope not.

I’m thinking I’ll post on a regular day, the same way I pretend to for Whore’s Boudoir. If stats show that my posts make a difference in terms of traffic, maybe I’ll see about getting a stipend for my work. ;) I have to admit, it feels odd to think that there’s content of mine going up on a site that isn’t strictly mine, and serves to benefit someone other than myself – and I won’t see anything as a result. Unless stats show that people go specifically to the site for my stuff, in which case that kind of ego boost may be enough. It’s just that right now I’m looking for a job that will allow me to earn money doing something I enjoy, which is where my uncertainty about this exclusivity thing comes along.

Ah well… I shall see what comes of it and how it goes. As much as some people I could name (*cough* Lucas *cough* Ben) claim they’re going to post, it never seems to happen. So, do I want to be left being the only one contributing to the site? No, I don’t. So, I shall see how things go, whether the format change leads to an increase in postings and such, and if not, then I’ll pull my content and put it back to here. *shrug* Seems fair to me. I think what it boils down to is that I don’t want my hunger for a little bit of fame and some publicity to mean that I get taken advantage of, as well-intentioned as it may be.

So, what else is going on, now that I got all that out of my system? Well, not a whole heck of a lot. Still applying to more jobs, trying to squeeze a few extra hundred bucks a month into my bank account. I’ve plotted out my next article/rant for unCultured, prompted by a trek through the shopping mall on my way to work (my usual path), and I’m just trying to pick the day I’m going to post. I’m thinking Monday or Wednesday, but I’m not sure. Also trying to come up with an idea for what I’m going to write today’s WB article on, but I have drawn a few blanks. I want to do something special for Valentine’s Day, which is one of the days I would regularly post anyhow, but that’s still a week away.

I managed to BS myself a research proposal in less than an hour last night, which was pretty impressive considering I went into it not having a clue what I would be writing my paper about. Now I can forget about it until early April, when the actual paper itself is due.

Still didn’t feel like I got enough sleep, however. I rarely seem to, lately; been sleeping poorly. I came home today, put Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back into the DVD player, then watched and snoozed briefly. This evening has been spent mainly prone, simply because I’ve been feeling tired and useless, and it’s the most comfortable position for my back, it would seem.

I hate times like this, when my back simply knots up and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s so frustrating that it makes me want to cry at times; other times (like last month), I have no problems with it whatsoever, or at least none that bother me. PMS is a real bitch and a half.

I’ve had a few times the last few days where it felt like my blood sugar or something similar simply plummeted. I don’t know if it’s because of PMS or if it’s because I’m not eating enough, but it’s (also) frustrating and somewhat scary. I thought for a bit this morning that I was going to pass out, but then my system absorbed the croissant thing that I ate (empty calories, but filling enough for the time) that I felt okay.

I started writing this while I was at work, and I thought I had so much to say, but now I can’t seem to recall any of it. I picked up my final textbooks for mystery novel today… I wanted to rant a little about indy bookstores.

There are a *lot* of bookstores at which the profs order their textbooks. In the course of my four years, I think I’ve been to all of them, plus some; Witchcraft this semester introduced me to a bookstore that’s specific to that type of subject, so I doubt many other profs are sending their students there.

Nonetheless, there appear to be two kinds of indy bookstores; one, like the one I was en route to when I met the guy on the bus, is staffed by really helpful, nice clerks with great attitudes; the second is staffed by people who appear to resent your presence in the store, your existence as a student… in fact, your very existence, period. It was at this store that I have been many times during the course of my four years, and I’ll be ever so glad to never darken their doorstep again.

Admittedly, it’s not all of the clerks that make me feel that way, just the one guy who appears to be the owner. He gives me the creeps, and he seems to resent the fact that (*gasp of horror*) *students* dare to enter his establishment. Sometimes I just want to yell at him, “Trust me buddy, I wouldn’t be here if my profs would just order their fucking textbooks through the uni bookstore, or I could get ‘em at Chapters and get 10% off – or more!”

I have a similar problem with the student-run bookstore. They’re so fucking poorly organized – there are often huge lineups, their methods of searching for your textbooks are haphazard at best (photocopied lists that list the texts somewhat by coursecode, but not all of them, and section letters or profs names aren’t included, so if you don’t know the title of the book you need, you’re fucked in some cases), they won’t tell you if they don’t have your text until you reach the head of the line – there are no signs posted to warn you ahead of time that you’re going to be wasting at least a half hour or more – and last semester, when I was there, they were taking our little lists of required textbooks, giving us numbers, then taking the numbers in whatever order they filled the order. D and I stood in line for a half hour or so to reach the head of it, only to wait as at least five people behind us got their orders filled while we tried to shuffle back and forth out of the way of the people who were paying. In the end, the textbooks that I got? I used for one article that I had to present to the class. I never cracked either of them open after that; thanks, professor waste-my-time-and-money.

*grumble* The discounts the student bookstore offers are sometimes significant – some texts will be $18.00 off – but frequently it’s between $1.00 or $5.00 that I’m saving. Sure, I’m willing to celebrate getting $5 off, but I’m not so damn poor that I can’t afford the extra dollar to get my book a little faster… or hell, if it’s a regular old book or text (like my Greek Myth text and Witchcraft Encyclopaedia, both of which I got through Chapters.ca for at least $20.00 apiece), I’m willing to go to Chapters for it. Meh. This semester I’m done, and the only books I buy will be for personal research, gifts, or pure entertainment. I’ve been dreaming of this for four years.

Mind you, the first bookstore of which I was complaining has an offshoot in the local mall, and sometimes you can get decent texts there for mucho cheap; Ben got the BUST Guide book for $9.00 and I paid the cover price ($24.95 + tax, if I remember correctly) at Chapters. The advantage of that one is it’s much more convenient, and Mr. Creepy Owner Man doesn’t seem to work there that often.

I polished off another Carl Hiaasen today, which was quite enjoyable; a review will find its way up sooner or later. Now I have to tackle the Agatha Christie for Mystery Novel, as well as maybe crack open a course reader so that I’m not panicking over reading week (which is a week away). I also picked up a gift for Moose today for Valentine’s Day, and that reminds me… gotta book those theatre tickets. Only issue? Got no real room on the credit card. *grumble* Actually, I do have some space, but I’d rather not put it on there; I’m trying to pay that thing off, which usually means not billing things to it.

I’ve got a lunch/brunch thing with Markuk on Sunday. He’s been in town over a week, but he’s been ignoring me, so he sucks, and I told him so. :) No matter, I’ve been pretty busy anyhow; still haven’t called that guy from the bus back, booked the tickets, booked Shadow’s vet appointment, or called the pharmacy. I suck.

And tomorrow I’m joining in on day two of the birthday festivities for gord. On that note, happy birthday sweetie. :) Tomorrow will be Chinese food and a party. Unfortunately, Moose is working, so he can’t attend, but at least I’ll have a few people there to bug – Angus and Ben among them. :)

On that note… it’s late, I’ve been exhausted for a few days straight, and this poor post is long enough. Thanks for making your way all through it, and I’m sure I’ll have more to report when I’m awake. Or have done something other than watch television and read.

2003/02/07

Ahhh... two papers down. Now I have nothing to do until the end of the month, when I have two midterms -- one on the 26th, one on the 27th. Then I have a paper and a presentation on the 4th of March (the paper will be a fair bit of work, gotta get a bunch of reading done for that), then I literally have nothing to do until April. I love this semester. :)

Well, except that two of my classes kinda suck; it's a shame, I thought intercultural might be better. Ah well.

Anyhow, I'm off to bed. Been feeling like dead for the better (uh huh) part of the day. :P Tomorrow shouldn't be *too* bad though... but I guess we'll see. *grumble*

2003/02/06

And now, content exclusive to unCultured.com has been posted. :)
That's the most sexist telemarketer I ever dealt with. Calling from the Globe and Mail (better believe I'm gonna name them!), asked to speak to my dad.
"Sorry, he's at work" (waiting to hear him ask to speak to my mom, whom I've been pretending to be every time I deal with these butt monkeys).
"Okay, I'll call back later, maybe about 7 or 8 o'clock?"
"Can I ask what it's in regards to?"
"I'm calling from the Globe and Mail, I'll call back later."
"No, we're not interested, thank you."
"Okay, I'll call back later."
(pissed now, so therefore a rude tone of voice, which I don't adopt unless they're *real* assholes) "We're *not* interested."

Fucking assholes!
*groan* Okay, so the English paper got done. Today involves getting some reading done and writing the other paper. Not a problem, since it's just three pages, right? Wrong. Gotta have all my sources lined up! This stupid thing is a second-year course, and the paper itself isn't due until *APRIL*. Why am I having to have all of my sources lined up *now*? Why not just make the damn paper due *now*? Argh!

Ah well, I can handle it. I think.

Got all 50 boos in Luigi's Mansion last night, so I got the final diamond and I feel accomplished. I made Moose laugh yesterday when I found a book I was looking for and laughed the way Luigi does when he finds a gem. I'm a loser. :)

Recently, Moose and I (along with Ben for the first), have seen The Good Girl and Igby Goes Down. Frankly, I was somewhat disappointed in them both. In Good Girl, I just found it too predictable, except for one incident involving the husband's friend. There were a number of things with which I could sympathize with the character, but I just didn't find it as wonderful as everyone else seemed to. For Igby, I didn't find any way of really attaching to any of the characters, so it was hard to feel too sympathetic about anything that was happening to them.

I was just reminded of something that happened one summer, after seeing Digger knock this fake flower I have out of my hand. Our property is lined with cedar hedges, and they're actually quite tall (or they used to be, prior to this one really heavy snow year). Anyhow, one summer I was out in the backyard with the cats, and Digger was getting a backrub or some such, when I spotted a monarch butterfly sitting on a huge thistle that had grown in a spot where the hedges stopped. I picked Digger up and took him over to take a look at it, from a safe distance. Well, the butterfly took flight, and Digger reached out with his big paw (he does have 'em), and gave the butterfly a whap! I felt awful, but it kept flying away; moves like that Digger generally does with claws in, so I don't think the poor thing was harmed. But it was kinda funny to see from my perspective; you really have to see Digger and watch him play to understand. He's a big kitten still. And I mean that in that he's clumsy, but handsome and funny. :)

My major time-waster the last little while has been reading UserFriendly strips. I think eventually it'll get added to my favourites list, once I'm caught up (which, at the rate I'm going, should be in a few days). There's a lot there, but it's pretty neat watching the evolution of the style and the setup. And it gives me something to do, other than actual work. :)

Anyhow, Digger is getting impatient, my mind is a blank, and I need to start getting ready for school and such.
Sorry about that link buggage... sometimes I find these sites are just crappy at making sure their things display properly. You may have noticed, as did I, all the grammatical and spelling errors in the quiz; not to mention the assumption that the one taking it is male. Bite that.

Ah well. I need *sleep* at regular hours, but it just ain't gonna happen for awhile. *grumble* Stupid Moose. ;)

"I think they're cute!"
"That means they're small!"

Heheheh... I did remember. ;)

P.S. The problem happened between the img and the src -- there had been a carriage return between the two that screwed it up. It's not the first time it's happened to me.

2003/02/05

Which OS are You?
Which OS are You?


Oh yes, and one of the others (the only one I applied to that had only one position) was already filled earlier. It was the one I figured I wasn't going to get, so it's okay. :)
Well, the word from one place -- they received my submission and I'll hear within a month. Not bad, at least they let me know what to expect or not expect. :)
Twice in a row now, I've been up late writing cover letters and submissions and asking people oh so nicely to consider me. I wonder how long I have to wait until I start hearing things?

It's been a few weeks since the round of bookstore applications, and a week since the pet food store, plus about a week and a half since the round of government applications. Bah. I will of course, be posting whenever I hear anything, but I'm also trying to avoid talking about them too much in case I jinx anything. Suffice it to say, I'm finding positions that would be great for me, so here's hoping. :)

Damn cat. He's put his claws into my knee no less than five times, trying to get my attention for something or another. I went downstairs to see if he wanted to be let out, and there's snow on the back stoop and it's kinda cold and windy out (though hopefully not too bad if I do decide to go out at all). He took a look outside and made this kind of "mrah" noise (as cats are wont to do), but this one had a funny tone to it, like, "No, I don't want to go out in that." It made me laugh. :) I did wake up this morning with Shadow nestled against my side and Digger by my feet, then on them as I started to move around. It's really comforting having them use me as a giant pillow. :)

I cut out of my class early yesterday, and I'm not going to Witchcraft tonight. I feel better now that I have all the books, and today is going to involve mad amounts of reading and writing (hopefully), as I have two papers due this week. Urgh.

In other news... I've finally organized all the links on my computer into "frequently updated" and "less often" (although, in some cases, that counts as "never aside from the day they started"). If you want to feel shamed into posting more often, I'll break down the list, but for now... dunh dunh dunh! That's threat enough. ;)

Other than that, what's been going on? Minor complaints about various people, but that's not helped by the fact that I'm not sleeping well and generally feeling irritable. Some of those complaints would still be there (starts with a c, ends with an oworker) even if I wasn't feeling bleh, but I'll hold off on 'em for now.

For now, off I go. Time to try to bully my body into waking up (haven't slept well recently) and get moving. Urf.

2003/02/04

Okay, now I'm going to bed Digger, I promise.

I've done some job pursuing, we'll see what comes of it. A couple of things I've tried to chase down recently would've been pretty good for one reason or another, but this last one... oooh, it could be totally perfectly what I've been saying I want to do. *crosses fingers* Here's hoping that my first submission wasn't too boring or my second wasn't too risque.

On the risque note (okay, not really), I've finally got a new article up. Here's hoping it marks a trend... and you're always encouraged to give me topic ideas or to start up conversations with me about sex. Hell, one of the last times I spoke with one fan/acquaintance it was to answer the question, "Do you find giving head to be erotic?" -- that was how the conversation started, essentially. Then there was the infamous evening of the friends disappearing to anser one of nature's calls... but staying in front of the computer. Funny, funny. :)

Anyhow, I'm very very tired and stupid, so I'm off to bed. Wish me luck in the random job applying, please and thank you. :)
I dance, I sing, I celebrate. Found someone else that linked to my site! wOOt, to borrow a phrase. :)

I love the description he wrote for it:

"The Whore's Boudoir: This one is grouse for the URL alone ("dunkenwhore.blogspot.com"). Its the diary of some chick. That likes to talk about sex. Not in a porno-text sort of way, but more taking the piss. Funny read, anyway. Every day I find someone with a more interesting life than me..."

Not that it's my diary or anything, but it's pretty awesome. *wiggle*

Also, if you Google the keywords "+whore +boudoir", the first bunch of hits that it turns up are mine, or links to me -- it used to be a bunch of other stuff. I'm also gaining popularity for both of my sites in Blogarama, which means that you guys are accessing Blogarama through my site, and people are coming here from there. Thank you very much for doing so; I really appreciate it, and I mean that. It makes me warm and squiggly inside. :)

Holy crappage... and googling just "eiram" nets you my page on the first page of Eiram references. If that makes sense. I also just did a calculation to bug Lucas: this here site is only 144 hits behind unCultured, which had just under 2000 hits when I first started writing to it, the same day that I started posting here. I got popular! *grin*

I'm seriously squiggly over this. Damn... I know it's sad and lame and whatnot, but this kind of stuff just totally makes my day, even if my fish *are* plotting against me.

Back to the article, if gord and Angus would stop distracting me. ;)

2003/02/03

My fish tell me to sell you more drugs.

I'm working on a new article! Whoo!

I'm feeling goofy. :)
Today my socks have dancing penguins in top hats on them. This makes me happy.

Secondly… I’ve decided I need to stay home more often to keep an eye on my fish. I think that when I sleep, or when I’m out doing whatever, they are secretly plotting against me. They’re angry because they rely on me for food and water changes, and they cannot live free, copulating and fighting as they desire. Therefore, they’re staging a fishie coalition to take me out.

That time that I saw Storm going at Dr. Seuss? He wasn’t trying to kill Dr. Seuss; he was showing him fighting manoeuvres! Dr. Seuss was critiquing his moves and telling him how to improve them!

Luckily, Stinky the fish (that may just be his new name), is isolated from them all. However, because his tank is arranged on top of the other two, he is their ringleader. He sends down the orders from his little perch on top and watches to ensure they execute them properly.

I think I’m worried. These are Siamese fighting fish! They’re *trained* to do this kind of stuff.

Maybe I’ll sleep with the lights on. And tape the lids down on their tanks.

If you don’t see regular updates from me over the next little while, be afraid for me, okay?

And don’t believe messages that have improper spelling, punctuation or grammar (well, mine’s not perfect, I know). If a message like, “jEn is FINE. DNOT worrrie. GO aBOUt yoUr bizNeSS” appears, then… you know the fish have taken over. Same thing goes for instant messages that might look like that.

They’re just waiting until Stinky gets bigger like Dr. Seuss and Storm; they’re his fighters.

I’ll let you know how it goes. For now, I’m off to work, where they can’t get me. I guess winter is my saviour for now.
Ngah. No more staying up late. Hahahah. :P Like that’ll stop me.

Sorry about the lack of updates (or the pitiful ones); I’ve been crazy busy and simply uninspired about sitting down and writing it all out.

Let’s see, what was the last bit I wrote? Wow, Thursday. Okay, quick rundown of the days since:

Friday I got my nails done (as I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now), then went home to dinner with the folks. I picked up Ben from work, and he and I went grocery shopping for our dinner extravaganza the next evening. After his shift was over, I picked up Moose from work, and wound up hanging out until 5 in the morning. I was pretty zonked around that point, so I finally got in the car and pointed it towards home.

Saturday I overslept, and then was informed that due to my lateness in getting home that night, I had to shovel the driveway. I haven’t shovelled in years, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. It took less than an hour, if nothing else. So, shovelled the driveway, and then applied myself to making dessert. I made a chocolate pudding from scratch, and then used it to fill cream puffs. They didn’t turn out quite as well as I would’ve hoped, mainly because the pudding was still quite liquid and they sat for some time, so they were somewhat softer/chewier than they should’ve been, but it all worked out.

Eventually got my act together, went and got Moose and his brother from their respective workplaces and showed up at Ben’s place, where preparations for dinner had begun. We had a fantastic lasagna (cooked by Ben), garlic bread with cheese or without, a Caesar salad, and some wine. Then, after it was all over, we had the cream puffs and some fruit salad that Ben’s gf had made. I was stuffed.

Moose and I wound up watching television until midnight, while I waited for my stomach to settle. We caught pieces of Orgazmo and Mad TV, all depending on what my mood was when I was flipping channels. I called my folks to say I didn’t feel like tackling the roads home (as they were pretty bad on my way over), and then Moose and I applied ourselves to the dishes that everyone else had abandoned. Those took about an hour to take care of, and then we just crashed.

I drove him to work in the morning (he had to be there bright and early), and then I came home and basically crashed for an additional hour and a half on the couch downstairs. Before I fell asleep, Digger was attacking the ties on the sleeping bag that I’d pulled over myself; I thought it was kinda funny.

Wound up just goofing around on Sunday, waiting for various people to clear out of the bathroom or stop running laundry so I could have my shower, then got in the car and went to go say hi to Moose at work. Got the most perfect parking spot yet – directly across the street from work – and went inside to chat with Char for a bit before my shift started.

I got to continue my soup diet yesterday. No, I’m not being serious when I call it a soup diet. I’ve just been eating a fair bit of it lately because it’s a quick meal and, at least prior to this week, it’s been *freezing* around here, so I’ve been enjoying cheap, warm meals. Work went pretty well, until I had this one nutjob to deal with. In fact, here’s the description of what happened that I emailed to my boss:

“He called during (what’s regularly a really busy time anyhow), just as I was about to go into a Buddy Holly tribute that involved me switching CDs and getting them ready basically every two minutes. He wanted to know why the hosts weren't honouring Mick Jagger. I said that they best thing to do would be for him to email them, he said he was visually impaired and that wasn't possible, so I said that I'd pass his message along, but that I was busy and couldn't talk to him.

He started saying he realized that and rambling about something or another, so I again stated that I was busy and hung up. He called back no less than 8 times; sometimes I simply put him on hold, other times I answered it and told him I was busy, then hung up.

He told me at one point that he was mad at me for hanging up on him; I told him that I had repeatedly said I was too busy to talk and hung up again. I think at this point he said he'd called (the big boss).

At one point he asked for my name, I said it was the same thing it always was when he called; he asked again, I gave it, then he asked for my last name and I refused to give it. Repeated I was busy doing my job, hung up. He called back a final time, told me that he wanted my last name, then said I was ignorant, rude, and that he was calling (the big boss); I said, "I thought you already did?" and he said he was calling again. Then he said, "Y'know what? Your ass is grass and mine is a..."; knowing what comes next, I hung up again. That was the last time he called.”

Gnah. I hate that man to begin with, and then he does crap like that…. Argh. Moose was there to see it all, too; he’d shown up to surprise me and got to sit and watch me work. Very boring stuff.

Afterwards, drove back to Moose’s place, hung out and played Luigi’s for a bit – finally got to figure out how to unlock those two damn doors. I have to admit though, I cheated; I went and looked online, which I’ve done for a couple of the ghosts. I’ll go back and improve the second game I started, since there’s another room I didn’t check out. Moose had fallen asleep on me, which I thought was funny. We went upstairs, then both fell asleep and wound up waking up around quarter after 4, so I drove home and tried to sleep.

My mind was just buzzing, however, so I couldn’t seem to for awhile. This morning I woke up to hear that damn ad for the show about mosquitoes, and I’ve been up since. Markuk called me last night, so we chatted for a bit; he got into town earlier in the week, and we made plans to get together later. They’re tentative though, since they hinge on whether or not I can get my act together this week and get some papers written. I have two due; one on Thursday for mystery novels, 1000-1500 words; the other is due Friday, 3 pages, but I have to do a whole crapload of reading for it, since I’ve only read I think 1 article for the class. :P I’ve been doing my English reading and the Occult stuff for the last while. English has been somewhat hectic; even though the stories may be short (although The Moonstone certainly wasn’t), finding the time to read them on top of everything else can be somewhat tricky. Read: frustrating. It doesn’t help when I’m driving everywhere, too; I’m used to having the bus time to get readings done. And I haven’t even been sleeping on the buses lately, either! Argh.

Anyhow, it’s time for me to get moving now. I have to get some breakfast into me, and shower and all that other fun stuff. I hope this update makes up for the ones I haven’t been doing, and I promise, I will be writing an article soon. I know I’m beyond overdue on that one. :P

2003/02/02



I am heroic couplets; most precise
And fond of order. Planned and structured. Nice.
I know, of course, just what I want; I know,
As well, what I will do to make it so.
This doesn't mean that I attempt to shun
Excitement, entertainment, pleasure, fun;
But they must keep their place, like all the rest;
They might be good, but ordered life is best.
What Poetry Form Are You?